how i met your mother

In honor of today's release of 'How I Met Your Mother: The Complete Sixth Season' on DVD and Blu-ray, AOL TV has an exclusive clip from one of the set's extra features.

In the 'Subway Wars' episode, the gang raced from the Upper West Side to Tribeca (for you non-New Yorkers, that's a short distance, mile-wise, but a long distance when you're in a city crowded with 8 million people) using their preferred method of transportation: Lily took the subway, Ted took the bus, Marshall ran, Robin hailed a cab and Barney ... ate a steak, faked a heart attack and cruised in an ambulance.

Check out the clip below for a behind-the-scenes look at Neil Patrick Harris filming the episode, plus his thoughts on why Barney's way downtown was the best.

Barney really is a diabolical genius. We're still putting together the pieces of his master plan to see Lily's breasts on this week's 'How I Met Your Mother' (Mon., 8PM ET on CBS). He had it orchestrated years in advance, in anticipation of the right moment and that moment was now.

Only, he didn't account for the unpredictable. After getting thwarted at a chance to see them for thirty seconds outside, he was held accountable on the original bet inside, that would have allowed him a more intimate experience.

But, he proved adept at the art of teppenyaki and with one shrimp in the pocket, he was on the brink of sliding into third base. So Lily chose the lesser of two evils and offered an impromptu sneak peek, distracting him.

According to Vulture, Holmes will make her 'HIMYM' debut in a Halloween episode in October. The character, who dressed as a pumpkin at a Halloween party in 2001, was introduced in the show's first season as a potential love interest for Ted.

'HIMYM' co-creator Craig Thomas called Holmes a "lovely" and "talented" actress. Holmes' last TV role was in Reelz Channel's 'The Kennedys' miniseries, and her last guest appearance on a scripted TV show was an episode of ABC's 'Eli Stone' in 2008.

On this week's Talking TV podcast, Ryan McGee and I delve into the return of 'How I Met Your Mother,' the great season 'Breaking Bad' is having and reader questions touching on 'The Killing' and 'Doctor Who.'

A couple of side notes: Ryan and I will be talking about 'Breaking Bad' every week from now until the show has its season 4 finale in October.

Also, we are dropping a special 'Fringe' podcast Friday night or early Saturday. We thought it would be best to talk about that show after everyone had seen the season 4 premiere, so look for that podcast then. I won't do a separate post on the 'Fringe' podcast, just check the Talking TV site or iTunes for it.

The seventh season of 'How I Met Your Mother' (Mon., 8PM ET on CBS) kicked off with a notably different Barney. Sure, he was still going through the motions of trying new plays to score with chicks, but that was just it. He was going through the motions.

It turns out, Barney has developed genuine feelings for Nora. So much so that he finally decides to be honest with her. She clearly didn't know what she was in for when she asked him to detail every lie he'd ever told to get a woman into bed.

The story she sat through was almost as long as the one future Ted is telling his children, but the point is, that she stayed through it. And then to prove that there was something about her that made him want to change, he stayed and waited for her. Could this be the woman he's seen marrying later? -- earlier? -- oh you know how time works on this show.

It's good for the sake of 'How I Met Your Mother' that this is a busy time of year.

The first time I watched 'The Best Man,' the show's season 7 premiere last week, I was extremely irritated. By Monday afternoon, when I found time to watch 'The Best Man' again, I was so worn out from Emmy duty and other tasks that what's below isn't quite an energetic rant.

It's more an elegy of serious disappointment directed toward a show toward which I still have a great deal of residual affection.

'How I Met You Mother' kicks off its seventh season tonight (premieres Mon., Sept. 19, 8PM ET on CBS), and fans will get a nice dose of singing and dancing, some auto-tuned Ted, two weddings and some flashbacks.

I hit the set during a particularly boob-tastic day of shooting this season, with Lily finally showing the first signs of pregnancy, but there were even more exciting things to talk about.

Like what guest stars Martin Short and Kal Penn will be up to, what sort of love triangles we'll be seeing this season (Barney and Robin and Ted? Really?!), lots of wedding talk and, of course, Marshall and Lily's bundle of joy.

While some shows have lured famous movie stars into leading roles, other shows are taking a more temporary approach this fall with big-name guest stars booked for short-term stints on the small screen.

It seems Barney Stinson has taken to basic cable reality shows for inspiration in picking up women, if the first trailer for 'How I Met Your Mother' Season 7 is to be believed. How else could you explain the ultra-long fingernails seemed to be taken directly from some sort of weird obsession show?

Aside from that failed attempt at getting a date, we see Barney and Ted bonding before the wedding, Barney and Robin dancing, and Lily being really enthusiastic about something.

There's a hurricane coming -- have you heard? As Irene bears down on the East Coast, our best advice to you is to hunker down and watch these videos. And even if you're not in the storm's path, you probably shouldn't miss these epic TV moments.

This week's Top 5 features Letterman responding to a death threat from a jihadist, Craig Ferguson catching Kal Penn up on pop culture, the epic throwdown between Ronnie and the Situation on 'Jersey Shore,' Ashton Kutcher refusing to tell us how Charlie Harper dies and Danielle Staub and Jake Pavelka yelling at each other.

It's enough to keep us inside for days. Check out the videos after the jump and vote for your favorite in our weekly poll.

So, after six seasons we still don't know who is the mother of Ted's kids, but now we do know that all will be revealed before the end of 'How I Met Your Mother' Season 8.

Creator and executive producer Craig Thomas told 'TV Guide' that the upcoming Season 7 will offer answers and even more changes for the 'HIMYM' gang. He also let slip that there will (probably) be only two more seasons left for the comedy.

"All of our contracts are up after [Season] 8," he said, "So we're preparing for that to possibly be the end. As long as we know that a year from now, that's fine. But if we don't, then that's a problem!"

Kal Penn left acting and his series regular gig on 'House' two years ago to move to Washington, D.C. and work for the Obama administration. Now he's back in Hollywood ... just don't expect to see his now-deceased 'House' doc haunting the halls of Princeton Plainsboro anytime soon.

Penn will reportedly be leaving his post of associate director in the office of public engagement at the White House later this month, and their 'HIMYM' source says he will play a new love interest for unlucky-in-love Robin Scherbatsky (played by Cobie Smulders).

Although a show rep declined to comment on the casting scoop, we can't help but get excited. Not only would this mean a new man for Robin, but it would also mark Penn's reunion with series star Neil Patrick Harris, who played "himself" in Penn's wildly popular 'Harold & Kumar' movies.

Mad props to the investigatory reporters over at Entertainment Weekly who chased down the source of some wacky ads that were popping up in reruns of 'How I Met Your Mother.' I give big-ups to them not only for breaking some fascinating news but also for admitting that, like the rest of us, they watch reruns of 'HIMYM.'

The news is this: thanks to groundbreaking technology, it is now possible to sell ads in old episodes of TV shows by digitally inserting things like TV screens in bar scenes or billboards on sidewalk scenes, and having those digital screens carry timely ads, for example, as EW noted, for the release of 'Bad Teacher' in an episode that was shot in 2009.

Hollywood is a magical place, but probably the most amazing thing about the entertainment industry is that any city can be faked.

Haven't you ever watched a show like 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' and wondered where in Philly Paddy's Pub is? Well, don't go searching, because in real life, it's on the Fox lot in Los Angeles, California.

And just a few doors down from the 'Sunny' set is 'How I Met Your Mother,' where the gang gets in trouble on the streets of New York City ... that are actually on a sound stage in L.A.

But there are shows where there's no way the magic of the city can be faked ... right? 'Mad Men' is so completely New York in the 1960s (shoots in L.A., in the present day) and the rainy Seattle backdrop of 'The Killing' had to be 100% authentic (actually it was Vancouver's raindrops you saw all season).

We thought we'd take a look at a few of the other best tricked cities on TV ...